Hostile environment - Senior Engineer II Monta Employee Review

1.0
Mar 5, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Small number of seriously talented engineers work here - Overall really nice colleagues - Industry is booming - Commercial success is likely - Decent WLB In the words of the CEO himself - “Any idiot can make great things with 80 million dollars”. Which is coincidentally about how much Monta raised in the last round.

Cons

Incredibly disorganised company on all levels of management. Everything is complete chaos all the time. Engineers are constantly juggled around between teams and projects, never enough time to settle and get in the groove. Teams are ran wildly differently, entirely based on manager’s personality, which is adding an insult to injury. I’ve seen several amazing experienced managers and other employees who were pushed out of the company by the culture of blame and chaos in a very short time. Development and management processes overall are decades behind the industry. Company is pretending to be tech-focused while there is like only one technically competent executive and tech is never actually a focus, barely taken into consideration. Company is chasing whales, primarily by pressuring teams into delivering enterprise-specific features on a short notice. (Often only for one customer) Accumulated tech debt is immense for the short age of the company and it is significantly dragging down on the development. Some projects take literally years of work of a large team while obviously should have been a 6-month project for 3 people. CEO is the definition of Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes to engineering. And he’s constantly trying to code himself bringing chaos on all the people involved. He also actively silences all the criticism of him, executives or the company and even fired people on the spot for speaking up. Company is severely lacking technical leadership. There's no political will to push for any obviously needed improvements in tech, development processes, architecture. Engineers are never listened to when it comes to larger tech decisions. Execs are open about the fact that Monta is benchmarking compensation against local-only companies targeting average. I.e. they don't even hide the fact that they're completely OK with mediocre talents (even though the company somehow still holds a small number of exceptional engineers). Execs came up with a whole load of vanity metrics to boast about how everyone is happy working there and everything is hunky-dory while genuine criticism is silenced. Company obviously hires HR people who are there to protect the company, some of the most dishonest and untrustworthy bunch I've seen in my career. Some executives spend their entire time on office politics. And overall execs cultivate a rather hostile working environment.

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Monta Response
2y
Thanks for sharing your experience as a Senior in our Engineering departments. We take your concerns seriously and while it is clear that we have areas to improve on and further address, the agility of our teams is a strength we aim to preserve as we navigate the complexities of growth. We truly value the talent and dedication our team brings to revolutionising the EV charging cycle. We understand the importance of stability, clear direction, and meaningful leadership, and while we value your feedback, at Monta thriving means being part of a transparent, empathetic, and ambitious culture. We’re dedicated to fostering an environment where everyone is heard, valued, and encouraged to take ownership of their work. We believe in learning from each other and growing together, sharing feedback is a vital part of this process. We're biased toward action, so we're always looking for ways to improve and make things work for many, not just few. We don't just want to be good at what we do—we want to be the best at it. Better results, better technology, better systems, better experience. Thank you again for your contribution. Team Monta

Explore other reviews about Monta

5.0
Apr 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- new management changes recently have created a lot more stability and clarity. - priorities are clear and compensation generous - product is good - customers are great to work with - interesting problems to solve - huge investment in AI makes this a great place to keep up the pace and personal skills - learning and development is constant and great! -transparent culture - people are really great to work with! Everyone is super motivated and genuinely passionate about the product. - generous pay and compensation

Cons

It’s fast growing so understandably there are teething issues - you have to have the right personality to thrive in a place like Monta. It isn’t for everyone. Support as a function is chronically underpowered and this adds a strain across the business and to customers which needs attention. Start up mindset and fast learning is crucial. Direction from csuite can change regularly so you need to be on your toes CEO can be a bit tough to work with at times - high expectations but minimal investment to support such expectations.

2.0
May 9, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Used to be full of driven and competent people, now most talent has left or is demotivated by current leadership - Interesting industry and product

Cons

- C-level measures performance by sycophancy and used AI tokens rather than actual results. Fear is the primary management tool. Fear of being publicly shamed, fear of being targeted, fear of speaking up. The lack of psychological safety kills independent thinking and innovation. - Politics is all that matters. People who are great at self-promotion but lack real skills are the ones who thrive here. - The HR/P&C department is widely perceived as a joke and doesn't address systemic issues. Monta's culture has already gained a negative reputation in the Copenhagen tech scene.

3
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